Big Draw, Big Make at the V&A

The Big Draw festival gets underway at the end of next week with a fanfare which will see leading cartoonists from national newspapers go head-to-head at the V&A.

The day-long Big Draw, Big Make event kicks off the annual Big Draw festival, a month of activity throughout October comprising over 1000 events across the UK and 20 other countries.

At the V&A Quentin Blake, who is clearly behind the event’s communications, will be joined by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, Gerald Scarfe and Richard Seymour, each giving 30-minute inspiration talks on why we should get drawing. Tickets are free but you must book.

Elsewhere artists, designers and makers will set up shop around the museum where they’ll encourage visitors to take part in creative challenges, including fashion illustration in the Fashion Galleries and designing fountains in the Medieval & Renaissance Galleries.

Appropriately the Raphael Gallery, which hangs the Raphael Cartoons, will host the Battle of The Cartoonists, where teams of cartoonists from The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Sun, Private Eye, Procatoonists.org, and Big Girls Drawers will be pitted against each other in a contest.

Each team will make a creative response to one of the seven Raphael cartoons which hangs in the gallery. The winner will be decided by  public vote.

Meanwhile the Sackler Centre will help visitors explore furniture design through the medium of matchboxes and cardboard.

Childrens-book illustrators will be helping visitors illustrate their own stories, and a collective applique table runner will be created inspired by Tudor Tapestries and Constable landscapes.

On the move a ‘sketch mob’ of artists, engineers and architects will be patrolling the museum sketching ‘a panoramic portrait of the V&A’ the Museum says, and there will be a chance to join them.

The entire event is aimed at all ages  and is backed by The Campaign for Drawing, a charity which is looking to change the way drawing is seen by educationalists and the public.

It sees drawing as a tool for thought, creativity, social and cultural engagement.

Big Draw, Big Make, will take place at the V&A, Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL, on 30 September.